We had a miracle day on Friday.

Greetings from the land where the sun never sets! Literally.

On Sunday night I get all antsy to email you guys and overwhelmed with all the stuff I have to tell you! I keep a little notebook with a list of stuff that I add to through the week and by the end it's huge! I'm sorry that these emails end up so huge.

So. My comp and I get to run along the fjord in the mornings. Well. When I beg and plead and convince her that we should run. She's nice and usually is fine with it. The quiet mornings and dirt road that we run on by the water helps me feel like I can do this for another day. I'm grateful for that exercise time.

We went to Trondheim again this week! Since being in Norway I have flown 5 times and I've only been here for 2.5 weeks! The planes are so little, but our favorite part is that they bring these little dark chocolates to you during the flight. Only in Europe, of course. It's probably to try and make up for the tiny plane that shakes and makes lots of noise. It's a miracle to me that we make it where we need to every time. We had conference all day and then that night we got rolle kebabs with the other sisters that are in Trondheim. Kebabs are like burritos kinda with lamb and lettuce and cucumbers and peppers and this yummy sauce all wrapped in a delicious pita thing. We ate them by the river and it was so lovely! Lamb is good. I don't think I could eat it every day though. It's a little sausagey. It was great to be with other missionaries again!'

This week we spent time with a couple members. Bonnie is one of them and she has three little kids and a baby that I want to hold so bad! I believe in being obedient though, so I try to make my motherly instincts go away. Haha her house had a water issue so she's been living in her garage. She was so kind and cooked us waffles and told us about the branch and area a little since she served a mission here too! I can't remember if I told you about her, but she's American and then she moved back here and married a Norwegian. We are grateful for her English and her kindness.

We also visited with Andreas. He is the funniest person to me. He's very kind and very enthusiastic. He helped me practice contacting because I'm terrified of it. We were standing in our driveway and he would walk down it and I would walk up it and stop him and try to tell him about the gospel in Norwegian. He kept making fun of me and telling me to try again, but he was also very encouraging and nice about my attempted Norsk. I'm so grateful for nice people! The world needs more of them. Pray for me to be able to contact and not want to pee my pants, please. :)

We went to Nesna on Saturday to try and visit a member. We don't have a phone number for her, so we were just hoping that she would be home. It's about an hour and a half away and you ride a bus up and up and up on top of the mountains and then you go back down. The ride was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Oh my goodness. I have no words to describe it and pictures of course don't do it justice, but I hope that everyone can see it someday. Nesna is a baby town and we got of the bus with no idea where to go. There are sheep everywhere. Miraculously we found her house, a grocery store with a bathroom because I was going to pee my skirt, and a new investigator! The member wasn't home, but we called a man named Eyob that the missionaries had met with before and he was so kind. He invited us to his home and his sweet wife made us lunch with barely any notice that we were coming. Eyob is from Africa and he has four adorable little kids. We had a really good conversation with him about the Book of Mormon and the nature of Jesus Christ and we are going to visit him again next week! My love for people from Africa is growing so much. Ah. I love them.

Speaking of Africa, VIKROSSY HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!!! We had a miracle day on Friday. There will be a pic shortly to explain our excitement. But. We got back from Trondheim on Friday morning and then we met with Vikrossy later that day. He has a baptismal date for July 6. He is so ready and so open to the spirit. He lives far away from the church and we've been working our hearts out to find him a ride, but so far nothing is working. Please pray for that too. We noticed that a dude in the library was kinda watching us and kinda listening. We were teaching about the Plan of Salvation. So we walked out and he still kinda followed us so we decided to talk to him to figure out if he was creepin or actually interested. He was! He asked us about life after death and we are meeting with him tomorrow. Again, the Lord just put things in our laps and showed us that through our faith and if it is His will, we can have miracles every day. We write at least one miracle every day and usually there are more.

Yesterday I taught my first Sunday school lesson in Norwegian. Um... I'm really grateful for Søster Morris. But it was frustrating for us and we didn't feel like it went as well as it should have. Church is really hard for me sometimes because it's so little and needs so much strenght. The spirit is always there though and I'm grateful for the sacrament. 

After church, we needed a tender mercy. So. Of course, our sweet landlords (they tell us to call them grandma and grandpa) took us to a thing called Stennesdagen. We had no idea where we were going cause they're really hard to understand, but it ended up being these old little houses and a celebration of Norwegian culture. There were lots of people and good food and music and really cool things to see! Mom, you would die at the cuteness of these houses. My pictures don't show very much, but at least you can see some it. And I ate reindeer. It was kinda like a rolle kebab only with reindeer meat. It was actually really good! Kinda beefish and I definitely couldn't eat it every day, but I liked it. And then we got home made ice cream. Our landlords were the sweetest and paid for all of it for us. I wanted to cry. The Lord always has tender mercies for us.

We met with Qrt afterward and had a really good lesson with him. He is one of the most peaceful people I have ever met and he just needs help recognizing that what he already believes in is the same things that we are telling him. He is so spiritually in tune and understands the importance of serving others to be happy. Ah. I can't wait to see what happens with him. I've never wanted people to have happiness like I have as a missionary.

We went to Mirella's for dinner and got fat from all the delicious Cuban food again. She invited us over again for tonight. She is so kind and really desires to follow Christ. We are having a hard time helping her to understand how simple everything is and that she doesn't have to be perfect to be baptized. I pray for guidance every time we teach her and to just let the Holy Ghost speak to her in a way that she can understand. I love her.

This gospel is true and we are BLESSED to have the knowledge that we do. Oh my we are blessed. I know that through repeating the steps of faith, repentance, baptism (through the sacrament), and following the Holy Ghost to endure to the end that we can have eternal life! It is a promise from our Heavenly Father. Keep going and recognize the incredible blessings that we have. I love you so much and I pray for you every day. Thank you SO much for your words and your love and support.

Love, Søster M. Pyne